UK's first 'super' nature reserve created at Purbeck Heaths
Wildlife at Purbeck Heaths
Purbeck Heaths is one of the most biodiverse places in the UK. This precious landscape on the shores of Poole Harbour is home to thousands of species including 450 that are listed as rare, threatened or protected. Keep an eye out for heathland birds, such as nightjar, Dartford warbler and woodlark. You've also got a good chance of spotting larger birds of prey, including hen harrier, merlin and osprey.
The area is also home to Britain's rarest dragonfly, the southern damselfly, and Dorset's only colony of small pearl-bordered fritillary butterflies. There are also rare reptiles (smooth snakes and sand lizards) and at least 12 species of bats. Among the many unsual plants that flourish here are marsh gentians, great sundews and lesser butterfly orchids.
Top facts on UK's first 'super' nature reserve
- The new site combines three existing national nature reserves at Stoborough Heath, Hartland Moor, and Studland and Godlingston Heath.
- The site is made up of a rich mosaic of lowland wet and dry heath, valley mires, acid grassland and woodland, coastal sand dunes, lakes and saltmarsh.
- The expansion will create the largest lowland heathland national nature reserve in the country, allowing wildlife to thrive.
- Purbeck Heaths is home to at least two fungi that are found nowhere else in England and Wales – the sand earthtongue and Roseodiscus formosus.